Critical Realist Activity Theory

Critical Realist Activity Theory provides an exciting new contribution to the New Studies in Critical Realism and Education series by showing how the nature of learning is tantamount to the critical realist notion of the dialectic. The science of learning is too important to leave solely to the sciences; it needs philosophy as well. The task of this book is to take a further step and clear the conceptual field for an ontologically grounded view of the science of learning through critical realism, making use of dialectical critical realism and the philosophy of meta-Reality, as well as basic critical realism. The objective of the book is neither to accommodate the nature of learning to strategies and techniques, nor to adjust to the demands of institutions and authorities. Its key goal is to explain how the very nature of learning constitutes itself; that is, its aim is to explain how a stratum of learning emerges out of the need to absent something that has been left out in human reality. In this precise sense, the book does much more than simply reveal the aspects of reality that have been omitted from the conceptualization of learning, it helps to reformulate a proper understanding of the nature of learning. An implication of this understanding of learning is that it begins to advance the fundamental question of what it means to be a human being. This book will be of great interest to academics and students interested in Vygotsky, Luria, Activity Theory and Critical Realism more generally across both Europe and the US.

Critical Realist Activity Theory provides an exciting new contribution to the New Studies in Critical Realism and Education series by showing how the nature of learning is tantamount to the critical realist notion of the dialectic. The science of learning is too important to leave solely to the sciences; it needs philosophy as well. The task of this book is to take a further step and clear the conceptual field for an ontologically grounded view of the science of learning through critical realism, making use of dialectical critical realism and the philosophy of meta-Reality, as well as basic critical realism. The objective of the book is neither to accommodate the nature of learning to strategies and techniques, nor to adjust to the demands of institutions and authorities. Its key goal is to explain how the very nature of learning constitutes itself; that is, its aim is to explain how a stratum of learning emerges out of the need to absent something that has been left out in human reality. In this precise sense, the book does much more than simply reveal the aspects of reality that have been omitted from the conceptualization of learning, it helps to reformulate a proper understanding of the nature of learning. An implication of this understanding of learning is that it begins to advance the fundamental question of what it means to be a human being. This book will be of great interest to academics and students interested in Vygotsky, Luria, Activity Theory and Critical Realism more generally across both Europe and the US.

This book extends critical realism by showing how it has been applied to topics in critical management studies, accountancy, marketing, health care management, operations research, the nature of work, HRM, labour process and more.

Critical realism is a movement in philosophy and the human sciences most closely associated with the work of Roy Bhaskar. Since the publication of Bhaskars A Realist Theory of Science, critical realism has had a profound influence on a wide range of subjects. This reader makes accessible, in one volume, key readings to stimulate debate about and within critical realism. It explores the following themes: * transcendental realist * the theory of explanatory critique * dialectics * Bhaskar's critical naturalist philosophy of science.

"Profound and useful, readers will benefit from the systematic treatment of learning through superb scholarship. Cultural-philosophical-curricular-pedagogical-historical perspectives on learning, curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment, and learners make this collection unique." - Carol A. Mullen, Professor of Educational Leadership, Virginia Tech Learning is a fundamental topic in education. Combining traditional views of learning and learning theory with sociocultural and historical perspectives, this Handbook brings together original contributions from respected researchers who are leading figures in the field. The editors provide a insightful introduction to the topic, and the theories, frameworks, themes and issues discussed in the individual chapters are central to each and every learning episode. The Handbook is organized into four sections, each beginning with a short introduction: Philosophical, Sociological and Psychological Theories of Learning Models of Learning Learning, Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment Learning Dispositions, Life-Long Learning and Learning Environments

The book provides a practical guide to the application of Critical Realism (CR), an increasingly popular philosophy of social science, in empirical research projects. Each purpose-written chapter reviews major social science research methods and contains extended illustration of how to conduct inquiry using CR.

This book, split across two volumes, is a follow-up and companion to Metatheory for the Twenty-First Century (Routledge, 2016). All three of these volumes are the dialogical outcome of a multi-year symposia series wherein critical realists and integral theorists deeply engaged each other and their distinct but complementary approaches to integrative metatheory. Whereas Metatheory for the Twenty-First Century is primarily theoretical in its focus, Big Picture Perspectives for Planetary Flourishing: Metatheory for the Anthropocene aims to more concretely and practically address the complex planetary crises of a new era that many scholars now refer to as ‘the Anthropocene.’ In this first of two new volumes, participants of the symposia series articulate a variety of ‘big picture perspectives’ and transformative interventions in the domains of society and economics, social psychology, and education. Together, these chapters demonstrate how integrative metatheory and its application can make powerful contributions to planetary flourishing in the Anthropocene. With one of the defining characteristics of the Anthropocene being the sheer complexity and multi-valent nature of our interconnected global challenges, these volumes crucially present new forms of scholarship that can adequately weave together insights from multiple disciplines into new forms of metapraxis. As such, this book will be of interest to students, scholars, and practitioners in the areas of philosophy, social theory, critical realism, integral studies, metamodernism, and current affairs generally.

One current challenge of conducting research from the leadership-as-practice perspective is a practical one: how to capture and analyse the elusive practice of leadership within the web of mundane organising processes. Although a number of researchers have attempted to address the issue, there is not yet a definitive ‘how to’ guide to making sense of the empirical manifestations of leadership practices. The book responds directly to this challenge and offers a theoretical framework and practical guidance to capturing, identifying and analysing evidence of leadership practice emergence; and provides implications of this approach for leadership academics and practitioners. The developed framework enables a method for understanding these leadership instances as they are enacted by individuals within and against the evolving activities of their day-to-day work. The framework is underpinned by cultural-historical activity theory and critical realism and it conceptualises leadership practice by placing agents’ actions and interactions within the context of their relationships, objectives, experiences, material and non-material artefacts and wider organising processes and organisational structures; work that has not yet been undertaken in the field. It offers a strong theoretical foundation for further development of our understanding of leadership-as-practice, providing a methodological guidance for undertaking leadership-as-practice research, and enables a discussion on the variety of underlying processes and elements as they emerge from empirical observations. It will be of value to researchers, academics, professionals, and students in the fields of business and management with a particular interest in management theory, organisational studies, and leadership research.